Marico Sunbird - BirdForum Opus

Photo by safariranger
Lephalale, South Africa, April 2006

Alternative Name: Mariqua Sunbird

Cinnyris mariquensis

Nectarinia mariquensis

Identification

11–14 cm (4¼-5½ in)
Upperside and throat green, belly and lower breast dark, and between these a narrow blue band near the throat and below a broad purple band.
The bill is dark, decurved.

Similar species

Female
Photo by colincurry
Lake Naivasha, Kenya, November 2014

Bill is longer than in Purple-banded Sunbird

Distribution

Eastern and Southern Africa :
Western Africa: Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, eSwatini

Taxonomy

This is one of the many Sunbirds that have recently been moved to the genus Cinnyris from the genus Nectarinia.

Subspecies

Immature male
Photo by Mick Harris
Marangu, Tanzania, November 2017

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

• C. m. osiris
  • Eritrea, Ethiopia, northwestern Somalia, southern South Sudan, and northern Uganda
• C. m. suahelicus
  • Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to central Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and northeast Zambia
• C. m. mariquensis
  • Southern Angola to northern Namibia, southwest Zambia, Zimbabwe and northern South Africa

Habitat

Dry bush savanna and woodland. Riverine forest edges and fringes of swamp forests.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists of nectar in addition to insects such as flies, termites and spiders.

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2024. IOC World Bird List (v 14.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.14.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
3. Sinclair et al. 2002. Birds of Southern Africa. Princeton Field Guides, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. ISBN 0-691-09682-1
4. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Feb 2018)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Marico Sunbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 2 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Marico_Sunbird

External Links

Search for photos of Marico Sunbird in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1